Life's Origin

The Beginnings of Biological Evolution

J. William Schopf

Publication Year: 2002

Always a controversial and compelling topic, the origin of life on Earth was considered taboo as an area of inquiry for science as recently as the 1950s. Since then, however, scientists working in this area have made remarkable progress, and an overall picture of how life emerged is coming more clearly into focus. We now know, for example, that the story of life's origin begins not on Earth, but in the interiors of distant stars. This book brings a summary of current research and ideas on life's origin to a wide audience. The contributors, all of whom received the Oparin/Urey Gold Medal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, are luminaries in the fields of chemistry, paleobiology, and astrobiology, and in these chapters they discuss their life's work: understanding the what, when, and how of the early evolution of life on Earth. Presented in nontechnical language and including a useful glossary of scientific terms, Life's Origin gives a state-of-the-art encapsulation of the fascinating work now being done by scientists as they begin to characterize life as a natural outcome of the evolution of cosmic matter.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright

Contents

Introduction: The What, When, and How of Life’s Beginnings

In this news-conscious age, everyone knows the journalist’s litany of
prime questions: who, what, when, where, why, how. About the origin
of life, scientists’ questions are similar, but more restricted. Setting aside
the who (no humans were on hand to observe the event), the where
(unanswerable except in the broadest terms—on Earth, in water, probably ...

1. Historical Understanding of Life’s Beginnings

There are three major singularities in the world—the observable universe,
life on Earth, and human beings. For the most part, we agree on
concepts of what the cosmos and human beings are, but we have
reached no consensus on what life is. It is easier to recognize life, in
all its common forms, than it is to define it. In 1976, during NASA’s ...

2. From Big Bang to Primordial Planet: Setting the Stage for the Origin of Life

According to modern theory, life arose on the primitive Earth by a
process of prebiotic chemical evolution. This process began with syntheses
of organic chemical precursors of proteins, nucleic acids, and
membranes in the early atmosphere and ocean, and ended with the
emergence of life forms capable of self-replication—forms that could ...

3. Formation of the Building Blocks of Life

Along with his books, notes, letters, and papers, Charles Robert Darwin
bequeathed two recipes to succeeding generations. The first, written in
his wife’s recipe book, describes the way to boil rice:
Add salt to the water and when boiling hot, stir in the rice. Keep it
boiling for twelve minutes by the watch, then pour off the water and set ...

4. From Building Blocks to the Polymers of Life

Nucleic acids and proteins play a central role in life on Earth today.
These polymeric biochemicals, composed, respectively, of nucleotides
(figure 4.1a) and amino acids (figure 4.2a), provide the catalysis, the
genetics, and some of the structure of all living systems. The genetic information
in the nucleic acid DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is transcribed ...

5. The Origin of Biological Information

Organic chemists should have invented the computer scientists’ motto,
“Garbage in, garbage out.” Proceeding step by step, purifying the product
of one step before using it in the next: this is the orthodox approach
to organic synthesis. Under carefully controlled conditions, it
is just possible to constrain the chemistry of a pure input compound ...

6. When Did Life Begin?

We have a fairly clear picture of how life began. Sketched in broad
strokes, a six-part scenario is plausible: (1) the genesis in distant stars
of the chemical elements crucial to life; (2) the formation of the Solar
System and accretion of planet Earth; (3) the nonbiologic buildup in
Earth’s oceans of small, simple, organic monomers; (4) the linkage of ...

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